


Underbelly

by signalbeam



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Yakuza, Angst, Community: badbadbathhouse, Drama Llama, Gen, Organized Crime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-14
Updated: 2009-07-14
Packaged: 2017-10-18 17:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/191498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/signalbeam/pseuds/signalbeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Amagi Inn is really just a front for a seedier and considerably less wholesome crime group. But they both bring income into the town, so it's okay. ... Maybe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underbelly

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the badbadbathhouse prompt: __What if the Amagi Inn isn't the family business at all? What if it's just a front, and the Amagis are really... YAKUZA!__
> 
> I keep meaning to return to this universe, but never really do. Returning to old fics can be like fishing: smetimes it just doesn't bite anymore until you shed a bit of blood. ... That doesn't seem right.
> 
> Heavily influenced by Black Lagoon so no, the awkward, oblique parallels you're seeing really are parallels.

As far as the average townsperson was concerned, the existence of the Amagi group was an open secret. It was part of the agreement between the Amagi group and the town of Inaba: the Amagi made no overt troubles while running their inn and bringing in the tourists, attention, and money the town so desperately needed. In exchange, the Amagi group got away with skimping on taxes, the occasional assault here-and-there, and an agreement with the police and townspeople that there were no yakuza in Inaba. Nope. None to speak of.

Well, except for that one incident with the knife fighting. But that was just a normal scuffle, anyhow.

 

\---

 

They stopped being best friends in their second year of middle school, when the lights were off and after Chie’s parents were asleep.

Yukiko wasn’t by any means an expressive person by nature, but even then, she seemed awfully quiet. Chie couldn’t understand why. After all, Yukiko had been the one to insist on the sleepover, and had even said that she wanted to talk to Chie about something, but the entire night had passed in a miserable, anxious silence, and Chie was dying to know what was on her best friend’s mind.

Finally, as Chie was rolling out the futons, Yukiko spoke.

“Father says that I should take over the family business,” she said. She was sitting at the desk, her hands smoothing over an invisible crease on her nightgown, over and over.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Chie said. “I mean, the Amagi Inn is the pride of Inaba, and you’d make a _great_ manager.”

Yukiko smiled bitterly. “Chie… don’t tell me you didn’t know?”

“Didn’t know what?” Had she overlooked something? Did she embarrass Yukiko by talking about the inn being the pride of Inaba? She couldn’t help herself, though. Yukiko sounded like she hated the inn half the time, but Chie loved visiting there, staying at a room and giggling there all night. It was a classy place, with great décor and great food. Sure, Yukiko’s father was a bit of an oddball, but he was nice and friendly and liked to give Chie steak skewers when she came over and didn’t mind it when Chie laughed at his strange suits.

“The business I’m talking about is more than just the inn,” Yukiko said. “I mean, the inn’s one part of the business, but most of it is… underground.”

“Like… geothermal energy?” Chie asked. “The springs?”

Yukiko did not answer. Her mouth drew into a tight line.

“I’m sorry,” Chie said. “I was just joking.”

“I’m trying to be serious,” Yukiko said. “But you’re not even listening to what I’m saying.”

Chie sat on the futon, a little bit at loss. She had hoped to lighten Yukiko’s mood a little, but wound up producing the opposite effect instead. Now Yukiko seemed even angrier, and it was her fault. She patted the futon next to her.

“Sit over here,” she said, and Yukiko did, though she still looked a bit angry. “What’s wrong?” she asked. When she reached over to take Yukiko’s hands, Yukiko did not refuse her, but she did not grip Chie’s hand, either.

“Father is a criminal.”

“Huh?” Was this about the tax scandal thing? Chie tried to find a better response, but the only thing she could come up with was another clueless, “Huh?”

“He sells guns to the gangsters in Okina. Whenever the inn gets really busy in the middle of the year, it’s because he’s hosting a regional gathering for the local yakuza gangs.” She recited the news as though she had prepared it a long time ago—and knowing Yukiko, she probably had done that just that. “The town doesn’t mind, just as long as he doesn’t take the guns in Inaba, and as long as he keeps bringing business to town.”

“Oh,” Chie said, because that was all she could manage.

“He told me that I can either pick the inn or go out into the city, but if I take the inn, I have to take over the rest of the family business, too.” Then she tightened her grip on Chie’s hand and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you.”

“I, um.” Oh, god, no, why did she have to turn incoherent just now? “I mean—it’s—how long did you know about this?”

“I’ve always known.”

“I mean—wow, that’s… It’s kind of like how—you know, out of a story or something.” Chie was blabbing again, she knew it. “About the mafia daughter and her overprotective father and then there’s…”

Yukiko stood up. “I’m going to get some fresh air,” she said.

She did not come back.

 

\---

 

“That girl you were with today,” Dojima said, abruptly over dinner. “On your way back home from school.”

“Chie-san?” Souji asked.

“The other one. The Amagi girl.” Dojima shook his head. “Don’t get too involved with the girl’s family, you hear me?”

Souji was silent. It seemed a long way from the Yukiko Amagi, heir to the Amagi Inn. This wasn’t the first time he had heard the warning, either, though the context was a bit different when Yosuke warned him off Amagi.

“Her father’s insanely overprotective,” he had said. “And I heard that she has all these weird bodyguards who are disguised as cooks and maids at the inn, and if they think you’re doing something fishy with her—” He drew his hand across his throat. “Not worth the trouble, y’know?”

“Well, I suppose it’s fine if it’s only the Amagi girl you’re getting involved with,” Dojima said, looking a little tired. “But be careful around her, won’t you?”

 

\---

 

After the deaths of Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi, the Amagi Inn was in a state of utter chaos.

It had been Yukiko’s mother’s idea, to have Mayumi Yamano stay at the inn. Yukiko and Father had warned her that it wouldn’t be a good idea, not with the police insisting that they stay over at the inn to make sure there was no commotion, or any crazed stalkers, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the shadier aspects of the inn. The careful dance of turning blind eyes and shooting eyes out, her father’s lieutenant, Watatake, had muttered disdainfully, and Yukiko was inclined to agree with him. Her father left on business shortly after Yamano came in, probably to avoid the police, and, as it was becoming more and more common over the years, Yukiko took command of the Amagi group in his absence, with her father’s lieutenant acting as hers.

Her mother disapproved, of course, but she had never liked the idea of marrying into a yakuza family, even one that put on airs of good manners and breeding. Once Yamano died and the police flooded in, she had a panic attack, and wound up holed up in her room with the family physician saying grave things about the fragility of her mental state, the strain of the family business on her body. And, as such, managing both aspects of the family business wound up falling into Yukiko’s hands in a matter of days. She never realized how much there was to do: balance managing the inn and its reputation with keeping the Amagi group afloat. Both were intertwined, yet they were so different from one another. Switching from the face of the well-mannered, respectable lady to the face of the interim leader of the Amagi group had so many fine shades of differences, two different roads that ran side-by-side.

In the morning, she dealt with the police as the interim leader of the Amagi group. Dojima nearly dropped his mug when Yukiko headed the dealings, rather than Watatake. No, the Amagi group was not responsible for the deaths of Saki Konishi and Mayumi Yamano. Of course not. Yukiko hadn’t even known Konishi-sempai that well, and as for Mayumi Yamano, well, Yukiko’s mother took the responsibility for that, and left Yukiko to handle the day-to-day operations. No, Yukiko didn’t know when her father would be back, but until he did, then all dealings and questionings about the Amagi group would go through her.

The afternoon hadn’t been much better. The media smelled the story and came down on the Amagi Inn in droves. She dealt with them, this time, as the interim manager of the inn, and there were so many shades of differences between the two roles that by the time she returned to her room, she was afraid that she had said, somewhere along the lines, that she was the boss’ daughter, rather than the manager’s. No wonder her parents had split the duties. It would’ve been too much for one person to take.

She took a brief nap, and returned to her duties. Much to her displeasure, the media refused to leave the front of the Amagi Inn. Yukiko muttered orders to Watatake—“Get those people out of here”—and he and some of his subordinates set about to that very same task. In a way, that made it even worse: now the media was standing along the front steps, waiting for a drop of a bloody story to fall into the waters so they could swarm in, devour it whole—

“Kasai-san,” Yukiko said. “Call off the meeting tonight. I want everyone to stay low.”

“Of course, miss,” she said, bowing slightly. Then, with the face of the assistant cook, rather than the family’s assassin, Kasai said, “Have you seen that Kagami boy anywhere? He was supposed to be running errands in town, but it looks like he’s off lazing somewhere.”

“If you need something, then I could go get it,” Yukiko said.

“Oh, no, no, it’s not right for the boss’ daughter to go walking on the streets,” said Kasai. “Especially not with those people waiting to get you.” By ‘those’ people, she meant both the reporters and the police.

“Kasai-san, please. I want to get out of the inn for a while,” she said. “I won’t be gone long, and I’ll go through one of the side doors, and take one of the cars. What do you need for the kitchen?”

“Eggs,” said Kasai. “Two dozen or so. Eggs, and a special order.” Kasai passed a thin piece of paper over to Yukiko. Yukiko glimpsed at its heading—ammunition again?—and tucked it into the pocket built into the sleeve of the kimono. She patted Yukiko’s arm and said, “When Kagami returns, I’ll beat his ears a bit, for making the boss’ daughter do his job, miss.”

 

\---

 

On the way back from town, she passed Seta. She had the driver pull over, and offered to give Seta a ride home.

“Are you surprised to see me like this?” she asked, smiling a bit wryly. She gestured to the car, and then the kimono. “Well, with all the ruckus, everyone thought it’d be safer if I go by car, rather than by bus. Are you getting along with Chie?”

“She’s a handful,” said Seta honestly. “But she’s a good person.”

“I see… Yes, Chie’s always very energetic.”

Yukiko felt a little pang of jealousy, despite herself. Of course Chie could befriend a city boy in a matter of days. Yukiko—well, she was struggling to even make small talk. She was beginning to regret bringing up Chie, regretting giving Seta a ride. What would his uncle say when one of the Amagi’s cars drove up to his house and deposited his nephew at its front door? No, no. It was no good. She wound up dropping Seta off at the intersection, and he took it gracefully, departing with a smile.

 

\---

 

A reporter and his crew was taping at the side entrance. Yukiko could feel her ire rising. Why did she have to deal with all of this now, of all times? They were the last ones there, though. Yukiko asked the driver to go fetch Watatake from the front desk. Surely, the sight of Watatake-san would make them go away.

But the reporter spotted her, and made his way over to her while still speaking into the microphone. “In other words, she’s a manager who’s still in high school. Now that has a nice ring to it. Let’s see if we can interview her. Excuse me!”

She wanted to pull her best boss face, her _oyabun_ face, the face of a _sodai_ , a respected leader. She wanted to have this man disappeared, thrown into the Samegawa with his feet and hands encased in concrete. How startled the reporter would be—how startled everyone would be! Her father would have her killed for that, probably.

So she swallowed her frustration and said, “Are you speaking to me?”

\---

In a dark room, Yukiko sat at the head of a long table. Her black hair was swept up in an elegant bun, and she wore a red dress and black coat over that. Her eyes were hidden by sunglasses, but even then, Souji could see the haunting, wide yellow eyes of a shadow.

“Oh, my, my,” the shadow said, giggling. “What’s this? Such a nice, attentive audience for my first show! Oh, I’m so embarrassed!” The shadow set a gun on the table, and pushed it to the camera. “I’m your host for this game of strip Russian roulette! Of course, if you get shot, then you’ll get your brains everywhere—but I’m sure _you_ won’t do that, will you? Everyone loves a little bit of fun! But if you’re too afraid of a little game like this, then don’t even bother showing up, okay? I only want the best to come and play my game, okay? You might get a chance to score with Princess Yukiko if you survive! I’ll be waiting!”

\---

“How sad is that?” said the shadow. _Chie’s_ shadow. Chie could only stand there in slack-jawed horror mingling with fury as the shadow yammered on and on and—why wouldn’t it shut up? “That Yukiko’s still keening after your friendship after all those years. What a joke! You were glad to see her getting busy, weren’t you? That way you wouldn’t have to pretend that you were friends, not when you can’t even talk to her about her business. Who cares about her diets when she’s the heir of—”

“Stop that!” Chie shouted. “It’s—it’s none of your business, it’s—”

“Oh, but it _is_ ,” the shadow purred. “You wanted her to depend on you, but when you learned her secret, then you ran away! Oh, I know your type: you’re only friends with someone if they make you feel good about yourself. But mafia princess? Well, that’s just _way_ over your head, isn’t it? So you tried to flatter her, suck up to her. What were you hoping for, a chance for her to let her into her _business_ , make you her little bodyguard?”

“Stop it… Stop it… I’ve never thought that!”

“And she’s so _feminine_ on top of that—well, it’s like you just can’t win. But she doesn’t _need_ you anymore, does she? She didn’t call you to tell you she’d be busy, she doesn’t even ask you about your day anymore. The only reason you came here was so you could make her yours, so you could rescue her and make everything _better_ , prove that she still needs you, prove that you’re _better_ than her.”

“Chie!” Yosuke shouted. “Calm down!”

“N-no!” Hearing Yosuke’s voice only made it worse. People were _seeing_ her, seeing everything she didn’t want them to hear, blabbing secrets she wished she could forget about— “Don’t come near me! Don’t look at me! That isn’t me!”

“Don’t say it, you idiot!”

“But of course, you’re really just no one, in the end,” said her shadow, still standing there so cockily, so self-assured. “I mean, who cares if you’re a protector of justice or whatever? Your best friend’s running around with people like _that_ and you don’t even care—what kind of protector are you? I can’t even win as a girl against her, never mind an actual person. I’m pathetic. I can’t do anything without her telling me how brave and great I am. I’ll never loosen my grip on her. She’s too _important_. She’s my _important_ person, the person I use to make myself stand out—or was. Because without her, you’re nothing. I’ll be taking things from here. You don’t mind, right? I’m still you!”

“Shut up! You’re—”

She was aware of a hot, stinging power deep in her throat, words bubbling over in a great rush, aware of Yosuke and Souji and Teddie telling her to shut up, to not say anything—

_“You’re not me!”_

\---

As they entered the final room of the castle, the dark room lit up to reveal a throne, and Yukiko kneeling before the shadow. Princess Yukiko was pointing a gun at her own temple as she yammered on and on, and the more she spoke, the more wound up Chie got.

“Chie… Chie’s my Prince. Or at least she _was_. She’s no Prince! She can’t take me away! She doesn’t even care about this!”

“Stop… stop it,” Yukiko said.

“Yukiko.” Chie reached out to help her up, but Yukiko pushed her away.

“Historic inn?” The shadow smirked. “The ‘family business’? I didn’t want to do it, but I did it anyway. All I needed was someone to say ‘no, don’t do it’ and I wouldn’t have done it—but now look where I am. Just think of all the people who died because of these _things_ I help sell. Chie could’ve stopped me. Chie could’ve changed things—but she didn’t. And now everything’s decided for me—from how I live, to where I die. To hell with it all!”

“… I think I got an idea of what’s going on here,” Yosuke said. He glanced at Chie. “Did you _know_ —”

“Yosuke,” Souji warned. “Don’t say anything.”

“I hate my parents’ hypocrisy, for trying to pretend that we’re a _respectable_ yakuza group while running a _historic_ inn that’s the pride of the town—so I go and inherit both businesses! I don’t care where I go, just as long someone takes me away—what a bunch of _bullshit_! Who cares about the inn? Who cares about the _family business_? They can all shoot themselves to death, for all I care.”

“How—how _dare_ you,” Yukiko said, her face pale.

“That’s how I really feel,” said the shadow. “Isn’t that right—me?”

 

\---

 

It was a scene Chie had played out before: Yukiko, leaning against her shoulder, the inn nearby, the banks of the Samegawa rushing in the background, the two of them making their way slowly up the road. Only, this time, for the first time in years, Chie took Yukiko all the way to the front door. People practically ran over each other to help Yukiko in, and nearly threw her out until Yukiko said to one of them, “It’s okay, Watatake-san. She knows.”

It had been years since Chie saw the inside of Yukiko’s room. Yukiko still had pictures of them from middle school on her desk, but there was nothing from high school on there. She felt a little pang, in her chest.

“Are you all right?” Chie asked. “You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“I’m just tired,” Yukiko said. “You should go home.”

“I’d feel bad,” Chie said. “After all, I’m supposed to be your Prince, right?”

Yukiko laughed a little, and said, “Yes, you are.” Chie hadn’t heard Yukiko laugh in years—and how many more years had it been since Yukiko really laughed, went all out in front of her? It hadn’t been recently, that was for sure.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve…” She trailed off. “I wasn’t a good friend to you. I… You went through all that trouble to tell me about the business, and then I just ignored it, tried to pretend it wasn’t there…” Yukiko squeezed Chie’s hand, and Chie laughed. “Sorry. I’m getting all weepy on you now.”

“It was unfair of me to throw the information at you,” Yukiko said. “Besides, Souji-kun and Yosuke-kun both know now. We’re not alone anymore.”

“… I guess.” But she still felt guilty about it, a little. No matter how many times Yukiko said that it was fine. “So, how many of the guys here are gangsters?”

“Just about everyone, I think,” Yukiko said. “Except for mother. She’s never liked the business.”

“And you?”

Yukiko was silent. She drew herself a bit deeper into the folds of the blanket. Chie pulled the blankets off of Yukiko’s head, and then took the temperature quickly with her hands.

“You’re burning up,” Chie said. “I’ll go get the family assassin or something to come in with a cold compress.”

“ _Chie_!”

 

\---

 

To say that Naoto was bothered with the idea of working with the daughter and heir of the most prominent yakuza gang in the region was—well, it would be an overstatement. After all, she was a detective. Technically, she was supposed to be upholding the law, but the law enforcement in the area had decided to turn a blind eye to the… Amagi’s… “business”. Granted, one of them was legit, and the Amagi group hardly caused any trouble in town, but it bothered Naoto on principle.

She had thought that Yukiko might not know about the family business—she had hoped, rather. But when a shoot-out happened in the beginning of November with a member of the Amagi group and Taro Namatame, it was Yukiko who came on behalf of the Amagi gangster.

“… I don’t understand it, sempai,” Naoto said. “How could you do this?”

“Naoto-kun?”

That oblivious way she said Naoto’s name was definitely an affectation. Naoto grunted, frustrated. “Sempai, the man you are bailing out of jail is a member of your family’s yakuza group. You have used extortion, blackmail, and bribery to get him out of jail when he should be charged for attempted murder.”

“Yes.”

“Sempai. Why?”

“Watatake-san is my trusted lieutenant,” said Yukiko. “He is my dear friend and confidant.”

“It’s illegal.”

“I was asking him to stop Namatame’s truck at all costs,” said Yukiko. “If Watatake-san hadn’t been there, then Dojima-san’s car might’ve been crushed beneath Namatame’s truck.”

“And instead Dojima-san ‘merely’ crashed into a pole, and Namatame was able to escape anyway,” said Naoto.

“Are we friends, Naoto-kun?”

“Of course,” Naoto said. “But I’m afraid I cannot understand your actions in this instance.” She paused. “I won’t press charges.”

“Thank you.”

"Not this time, at least," she said.

Yukiko smiled. Naoto suspected she would be bothered on principle for a very, very long time.


End file.
